Medal of Honor Limited Edition Review

Medal of Honor has a storied past with gamers. The original console version still stands up as one of the best WWII shooters and the PC multiplayer was long a staple of LAN party play. The last few years however have not been kind to this series. When created by EA in the 1990′s, the key selling point was a recreation of the story behind some remarkable men who earned the highest military honor the United States of America offers.

Medal of Honor breaks with this formula. Following the lead of Activision’s Call of Duty series (which was itself a clone of the Medal of Honor formula at first), MoH moves into modern warfare, specifically the Taliban conflict in present day Afghanistan. Rather than focusing on the major Army units, the player assumes special status as a group of soldiers known as Tier 1 operators. These covert elites infiltrate, extract and play forward observer for the better known Army Spec Ops teams, often off the books and without direct Army oversight.

The single-player campaign revolves around this team of operators and the covert actions of hunting down Taliban forces through informants, local friendlies and sneaky night operations. While the arid setting of Afghanistan is visually and tactically much more difficult than the fertile crescent of Iraq, it ended up feeling a lot like more of the same to me.

There is a central evolving storyline and you get a good feel for just how embedded the Tier 1 teams are, with tenuous control by Army high command or even Ranger Spec Ops teams. You are the shadow of the US military, sent far ahead of the line and far afield to prepare the way, root out information and take preemptive action against an enemy that is often very hard to identify, let alone define.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen this exact concept play out over the last three years in Call of Duty and Battlefield: Bad Company games. Sure the setting is different and this is not a made-up alternate timeline, placing some emphasis on some of the challenges our deployed soldiers in Afghanistan face today, but for most gamers I’m pretty sure that impact will drill down to “look I’m shooting bad guys in craggy passes!”

There is a nice selection of missions in Medal of Honor’s central story. It’s not just running though war torn villages or sneaking up on secured compounds. The integration of vehicle gameplay, especially the Apache missions in the late game keep things from feeling too formulaic.

I especially enjoyed the flanking/spotter mission that requires the player to take a nearby air tower to call in massive ordnance on Taliban mobile forces or the mix of day and night missions, particularly the ATV run through the desert to a fortified compound. There are some good moments in this game but it just didn’t feel very distinct overall.

Aside from the one player storyline, the Tier 1 mode introduces a bit of competition to the solo experience. Players can go back and compete for milestones while replaying story missions against their friends. Working to complete objectives more efficiently or quickly or comparing kills and the like with friends in a non-linear fashion.

Medal of Honor of course includes a large multiplayer element. Again these multiplayer modes follow the expected formula of a modern shooter. Team oriented gameplay is key here and the Afghan setting is distinct both visually and tactically to make a pretty big impact. The abundance of blind corners and rocky outcroppings, caves and crevices lend well to pop-out assaults. The game modes feature kit-based classes and offer experience systems with unlocks for those who chug through enemy kills.

Due to the setting though, I experienced a big advantage to players who master sniper style play. It’s common to spawn into an active game and die repeatedly at the hands of enemy sharpshooters. Luckily, neither faction is better equipped at first.

Much public debate was raised around the inclusion of the Taliban as a playable force in this title. Well, let’s get this out of the way – aside from soundbites and talking heads, no one playing the game really will care or notice. You are not playing missions where you have to torture civilians or military prisoners.

The Taliban here is just a wrapper on a generic enemy force and just like when you were playing Cowboys and Nazi’s on a playground, well someone has the be the Nazis. It doesn’t mean you’re really playing as a Nazi, just that your avatar in game looks like one.

EA’s concession of making the menu say “opposition force” is pure and simple public pandering and is pretty weak. These characters still look exactly the same as they did when they were labeled Taliban. Playing war games does not glorify one side over the other. It’s not a recruitment ploy or social comment – it’s a bunch of gamers at play, and it shouldn’t matter if they were blue skinned N’avi vs. Predators. There is nothing political here to be sensitive too.

Medal of Honor multiplayer supports two 12 person teams in combat. The modes include Combat Mission, Team Assault, Objective Raid and Sector Control. None of these are free-for-all games, instead focusing on teams and objectives. There are eight included maps across the various game modes with Limited Edition players unlocking more once the game begins accepting LE online play codes.

The Limited Edition includes extra options for multiplayer, like two shotguns, and a full copy of the classic Medal of Honor Frontline. Frontline is a PS2 title that is of course set in WWII and while it installs to the hard drive, players must insert the Medal of Honor disk to play. If you missed Frontline when it premiered it is well worth playing as this game manages to do something its latest progeny does not – tell an involving story surrounding a historical soldier who eventually earned a Medal of Honor.

Overall, Medal of Honor is a good game. It’s just not different enough from Activision’s series or even EA’s Battlefield games to make it stand out. I felt that the hook to make the game unique just wasn’t there in a market now flooded by modern combat games, just like when it was flooded by World War II shooters five years ago. The multiplayer will feel familiar to Battlefield: Bad Company 2 players and since it uses DICE’s Frostbite technology, well that’s to be expected too.

The problem here is Medal of Honor is too much “too be expected” for my tastes. Maybe there really is nowhere else these types of games can evolve.

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25 Comments on Medal of Honor Limited Edition Review

Rui Barbosa

On October 16, 2010 at 1:10 pm

gosto do jogo

Cyber

On October 16, 2010 at 9:46 pm

no search and destory? are the multiplayer modes respawn or die and wait till the round ends?

michael

On October 18, 2010 at 3:28 pm

no search and destory? are the multiplayer modes respawn or die and wait till the rouns ends

Chris

On November 4, 2010 at 4:28 pm

Just bought the game.. GREAT game to say the least.. The only complaint I have… The game is SOOOOOOO short.. I beat it in 2 days of only a couple hours of playing time perday.. Thats my only dissapointment.

Mark

On November 5, 2010 at 11:12 am

Chris, I agree I was shocked when the game sudenly ended on my second day as well!

ssgt gno

On November 11, 2010 at 8:12 am

hey guy, nice reveiw! I am having a bear of a time with the apache mission, especially the mortar pit. i can’t seem to thread the needle. plus, am not sure whether i am shooting at the right thing! aaarrrgggh! any tips would be greatly appreciated. oorah! g

Ross

On November 25, 2010 at 11:30 am

They game is typical for modern first person shooter military games. I love playing these games, but can only stand so much unrealistic warfare. This new Medal of Honor game is no different. The novelty wears off after being shot through cinder blocks, metal, hesco barriers and other items of cover which in real life are imposible to shoot through even with a .50 cal, which I have yet to be shot by. Granted, I can do the same to other players, but when you find those little s out there who know this and they expend mass amounts of ammo shooting through cover, its sucks. I enjoy this game but, cover is meant to be cover. Not to get shot through when trying to get the high ground in a building to snipe or around a corner to lay waste on the enemy coming around that corner. They see you on the map and shoot through that cover. Total BS!

josh

On December 2, 2010 at 8:26 pm

FYI, I’m pretty sure a .50 cal will shoot through a cinder block and depending on the thickness/type/distance could go through metal as well. The Hesco bastion on the other hand would likely stop a round from a .50 cal considering some are 4 feet thick. A .50 cal is considered a Heavy weapon and at times a small arms, depending on what is shooting the .50 caliber round, whether it be a sniper rifle or a Heavy machine gun I no doubt see that little piece of metal at your back stopping multiple .50 cal rounds. Some 50 cal sniper rifles are designed to shoot armor piercing rounds. The M2 .50 caliber machine gun is still standard issue today and is primarily an anti-vehicular weapon. Just thought I would clarify that.

diptarup.94

On December 14, 2010 at 2:40 am

Blah Blah………..Such Good Talks But The Game Is Really Sucks…
Though Good Graphics And Gameplay…..A Very Short Game
Finished It In 8 hours…..

Bob

On February 5, 2011 at 10:51 am

Medal of Honor is a great game, but the story is short but multiplayer amazing better than black ops by far

Yogesh

On February 14, 2011 at 11:15 pm

Guyz
All the games are short not only medal of honor. I completed this game in 2 days, Black OPs in 5 hours, even GTA 4 in 6 days.
If you want to enjoy all latest games then you need original games to play online.
You can’t enjoy in Single Player for long time.

Q: I have Play medal of honor 2010 and completed. is there something new (different) in limited edition? Because i don’t recognize these screenshots.

who ever made medal of honor well they rock you know cause all of your games are awesome.I played it for a about 3 hours and all the mission was really hard but awesome.My favorite mission was the war because after it i got to use the helicopter.If you guys going to make another please make it your best.So please make it the best medal of honor and make it fast

Hi it’s me again it’s only been a few minutes i just wanted to comment about the game cause i have nothing to do so yeah.So what are you guys doing by now cause i am really thrilled to play cause my mom said that i need to stop if you guys are going to ask my age well i am 10 years old

i Cant finish these about the mission Cover neptune in the Clip of the hill and then theres have a predator feed how can i finish that ?

Althausen

On January 3, 2015 at 2:55 pm

I have been trying to get help with this from EA without success. I’m stuck at the point of being in the caves with Sgt. Patterson. After clearing the caves and Patterson notes a “clear” and checks for Seals, he stops at the creates and will not go any further. He did say “follow me” before that. If I continue toward the exit, I will be trapped……not being able to exit or return to Patterson. Can’t figure out what is going on. Also, what the heck is a “nod”??
Need help.
Althausen

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